The present invention generally relates to brackets for mounting tubing, and more specifically, to a tubing bracket assembly, an apparatus for attaching the assembly to a tube and a method for attaching the bracket assembly to a tube. This invention is particularly advantageous when attaching a bracket to round tubing.
Many products have tubing which must be mounted to the product.
Typically, the tubing is supplied to the product manufacturer as an assembled part with the bracket pre-attached to the tubing. This allows the product manufacturer to position the tube at the proper location and attach the bracket to the product. As will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art, pre-attached brackets must be properly located on the tube or the tube will not be capable of proper alignment with respect to the product. Further, as will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art, the tube may have numerous bends and require more than one bracket along the tube. This increases the difficulty in attaching the bracket to the tube.
The typical method for mounting a bracket to a tube is to weld the bracket onto the tube. This process requires that the bracket be positioned on the tube at the proper location, held securely at the location and then welded to the tube. This method has several disadvantages. First, the bracket is typically an elongated flat metal piece which may have several bends and twists. A small portion of the bracket, a foot portion, is typically bent at an angle with respect to the remainder of the bracket and is the portion that is welded to the tube. This small portion is curved to approximate the curve of the tube and thereby facilitate attachment to the tube. However the foot portion is difficult to properly locate and, once located, is difficult to retain in the proper position during the welding process. Further, the welding process can cause expansion of the respective parts further enhancing the potential for misalignment. Typically, the bracket has a mounting hole whose centerline must align with the centerline of the tube in order to have a properly attached bracket. As should be appreciated, slight misalignments can result in a defective part requiring the part to be scrapped. With such a small area for use in aligning the bracket, misalignment of the bracket occurs quite easily.
Another disadvantage is that the welding process welds the bracket directly to the tube. As discussed above, the area of the bracket that is welded is a small portion of the bracket and may not be securely attached to the tube, resulting in either a loose bracket or a bracket which can easily be separated from the tube. Again, the result is scrapping of the part. A still further problem is bum-through of the tube during the weld process. Sometimes the weld will burn through the tube causing the tube to be scrapped.